On 15 August 2024 Jason Smyth MBE launched Joe Geraghty’s “Out of Sight! Stories of Ireland’s Blind and Vision Impaired Sportspeople”. The launch took place at a lively Vision Ireland Wayfinding Centre in Dublin.
Life after the Launch
A year and a half later Joe returns with an update from Paris to Tokyo; from Presidency to podcasting!
Out of Sight! is published by Martello Publishing, and is available in all accessible formats: print, adapted print, braille and audio. Check out www.outofsight.ie.
Out of Sight with Joe G is a new podcast available on Apple, Spotify and wherever you listen to your favourites. Listen and see https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/out-of-sight-with-joe-g/id1873593436
From Paralympics to podcasting
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?
18 months since Out of Sight! hit the bookshelves I still need to pinch myself and wonder did this all really happen?
Years may come, years may go but this one had it all.
As I was being interviewed by Pat Kenny on Newstalk and Tommie Bowe and Brooke Scullion on Virgin TV Katie George Dunlevy was cycling into golden history at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. Katie had given me my poshest interview two years earlier as we sat sipping coffee at Dublin’s exclusive Merrion Hotel. Now with tandem pilot Linda Kelly they recently returned from Belgium where they won double gold at the World Road Championships.
Swimmer Róisín Ní Riain was making more medal history in Paris as well as, more recently, in Hong Kong. I was intermediary on Roisin’s initial sight classification in autumn 2019 so I was well aware a star was born. She was my last “Out of Sight!” interviewee and was hard to get as she is forever in the pool.
In the “Out of Sight!” chapter called Girls’ Talk I profiled track athletes Greta Streimekyte and Orla Comerford. Orla bronze medalled at the Paris Paralympiad. A year later in New Delhi she won World double world gold while her friend Greta also became golden girl.
“Out of Sight!” might never have featured on Pat Kenny and the Ray Darcy show were it not for former RTE Head of Radio Sport Ian Corr. Two years ago I sat engrossed in conversation with Ian in his cosy Churchtown home. Sadly, Ian passed away after a short illness on 18 April 2025. May Ian rest in peace.
While wrapping up “Out of Sight!” in April last year I received a call from Barry Ennis, Chair of Vision Sports Ireland. “Joe,” says he, “the Board of Vision Sports Ireland wish you to become our next President”. I’d say for the first time ever Barry heard my prolonged sound of silence! Shock is the only way to shut me up!
Of course I accepted. Now I could be a voice for all who gave blood, sweat and tears to make Vision Sports what it is today.
The Vision Sports role is honorary and non-executive. I sit in the passenger seat and celebrate the superb team led by Aaron Mullaniff and managed by Pádraig Healy. I’m in awe of their work and all credit goes to Kristina Millar, Sara McFadden Sean Poland, Sean Moyles, Aine Stanley and Rosie Keogh.
Just like my Presidential pre-decacorns Liam Nolan, Fred Cogley, Colm Murray and Prof. Michael O’Keeffe my goal is to continue building awareness and understanding of the many sports and leisure options available to blind and vision impaired people.
My first official engagement as President was to visit the Park! Ah, but I skipped by Aras an Uachtaráin and popped into Farmleigh House to welcome home our heroic Paris Paralympians. Weeks earlier my last non-President role was to officially present, with my great friend Pat Kelly, the going away kit to each and every Paralympian at the Great Hall in the RDS. Bon voyage, Bienvenue!
Away from the glamour I traversed the country physically and virtually knocking on the doors of regional and local radio stations and newspapers. Podcasters, social media influencers and web editors came my was too.
I loved doing the conference circuit, almost always among friends in the disability sector. So many warm hugs and kind wishes.
I have no independent factual basis for believing one in five people heard about “Out of Sight!” but my stats tell me it’s true! I loved the reactions from across the country. Nobody’s going to tell you your book makes good toilet paper but I was told it was the perfect bathroom read! It was lovely to receive calls and messages relating to how readers had found the book in their local bookshop, library, kindle or online.
After phenomenal work ChildVision published the Braille edition. Meanwhile, the Vision Ireland library recorded the studio audio version and distributed through Bookshare Ireland. The UK based RNIB picked up and sought permission to publish. Why not?
At Vision Sports Zero Limits in Mondello last July the guy in front of me in the lunch queue told me how he signed up to attend after reading “Out of Sight!”. I introduced myself and it quickly became clear he knew the book maybe better than myself. That’s the writer’s reward.
Some chancers have asked me if the book made me rich? You’re more likely to find an author in Stubbs Gazette, with tax defaulters, than on the Irish Times Rich List! Most sports book writers break even or lose while just the super stars end up in the black. I’m proud to say I’ll break even thanks to the advance sponsorship of Vision Ireland Foundation, the Granville Hotel and Kildare Co. Council.
Several high profilers praised or endorsed “Out of Sigh” including Pat Kenny, Eamonn Coghlan, Katie-George Dunlevy, Ray Darcy, Damien Tiernan, Declan Meehan and Jason Smyth. There were many reviews out there too. I was thrilled with the syndicated review across many or Ireland’s regional newspapers written by the genial Anne Cunningham. According to Anne “Out of Sight!” is ” a pure tonic…ever hear of Braille Chess? I hadn’t. Ever hear of a blind driver? They rip it up regularly at Mondello, using dual-drive cars. These people really don’t recognise boundaries and those people who assist them in reaching their seemingly impossible goals are solid gold. There’s plenty of ‘uplit’ fiction out there, but it’s truly heartening to read the ‘uplit’ facts in this book!”
After the book the film? Not quite, No calls from Netflix, Apple or Disney Plus. Sky did ring but that was a broadband upgrade!
And so I’m having a go at podcasting. Out of Sight with Joe G launched its trailer on 4 February 2025. It’s all about sharing hobbies and pastimes in a world of health and wellbeing. Get an earful of this https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/out-of-sight-with-joe-g/id1873593436
In 2025 Grainne and I become grandparents to Henry, son of our eldest daughter Claire and husband Eoin. We also had the big summer wedding as our baby daughter Katie married Graham.
The book now goes on the shelf as I pass time pondering podcasting pastimes.
Listen and see. https://podcasts.apple.com/ie/podcast/out-of-sight-with-joe-g/id1873593436